Welcome
to Texas, Trails To The Past. We are Charlie (State
Administrator) and Linda
(Assistant State Administrator).
We are here to serve you. Our goal is to add
your family history to this site with the goal of making our
site one of the best, if not the best, Texas genealogy / historical
sites on the internet.

We would be
honored to include your family history to this project.

History

The
History is of Texas is much too rich and colorful to ever do it justice
in such a setting. All that can be done here is a bare outline.

Texas lies between two major
cultural spheres of Pre-Columbian North America: the Southwestern and
the Plains areas. Archaeologists have found that three major indigenous
cultures lived in this territory, and reached their developmental peak
before the first European contact. These were: the Pueblo from the
upper Rio Grande region, centered west of Texas; the Mississippian
culture, also known as Mound Builder, which extended
along the Mississippi River Valley east of Texas; and the civilizations
of Mesoamerica, centered south of Texas. Influence of
Teotihuacan in northern Mexico peaked around AD 500 and
declined over the 8th to 10th centuries.

The
first historical document
related to Texas was a map of the Gulf Coast, created in 1519 by
Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda. Nine years later,
shipwrecked Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his cohort
became the first Europeans in Texas. European powers ignored Texas
until accidentally settling there in 1685. Miscalculations by René
Robert Cavelier de La Salle resulted in his establishing the colony of
Fort Saint Louis at Matagorda Bay rather than along the Mississippi
River. The colony lasted only four years before succumbing to harsh
conditions and hostile natives.

In
1690 Spanish authorities,
concerned that France posed competitive threat, constructed several
missions in East Texas. After Native American resistance, the Spanish
missionaries returned to Mexico. When France began settling Louisiana,
mostly in the southern part of the state, in 1716 Spanish authorities
responded by founding a new series of missions in East Texas. Two years
later, they created San Antonio as the first Spanish civilian
settlement in Texas.

Within
Mexico, tensions
continued between federalists and centralists. In early 1835, wary
Texians formed Committees of Correspondence and Safety. The unrest
erupted into armed conflict in late 1835 at the Battle of Gonzales.
This launched the Texas Revolution, and over the next two months, the
Texians successfully defeated all Mexican troops in the region. Texians
elected delegates to the Consultation, which created a provisional
government. The provisional government soon collapsed from infighting,
and Texas was without clear governance for the first two months of 1836.

During
this time of political
turmoil, Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna personally led
an army to end the revolt. The Mexican expedition was initially
successful. General Jose de Urrea defeated all the Texian resistance
along the coast culminating in the Goliad Massacre. Santa Anna's
forces, after a thirteen-day siege, overwhelmed Texian defenders at the
Battle of the Alamo. News of the defeats sparked panic amongst Texas
settlers. The newly-elected Texian delegates to the Convention of 1836
quickly signed a Declaration of Independence on March 2, forming the
Republic of Texas. After electing interim officers, the Convention
disbanded. The new government joined the other settlers in Texas in the
Runaway Scrape, fleeing from the approaching Mexican army. After
several weeks of retreat, the Texian Army commanded by Sam Houston
attacked and defeated Santa Anna's forces at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Santa Anna was captured and forced to sign the Treaties of Velasco,
ending the war.

As
early as 1837, the Republic
made several attempts to negotiate annexation with the United States.
Opposition within the republic from the nationalist faction, along with
strong abolitionist opposition within the United States, slowed Texas's
admission into the Union. Texas was finally annexed when the
expansionist James K. Polk won the election of 1844. On December 29,
1845, Congress admitted Texas to the U.S. as a constituent state of the
Union.

Books

One of
our projects at Texas - Trails To The Past is transcribing
and
posting Texas Historical Books that are in the Public Domain (Not under
Copyright protection). At this time we have between fifteen
and twenty
books we plan to put online. This is more of an editing /
formatting / proofing documents converted from PDF (Acrabat
Adobe)
files. Please contact Charlie
if you would like more information on this project.

This
section is dedicated to preserving the Family Research of individuals
who have donated their research to Texas - Trails To The Past.
The initial project in this area is the work of Leaton Clark
who
has been researching his family history for over forty years.
Please contact Charlie
if you would like more information on this project or if you would be
interested in donating you research (partial or complete) to this
project.

Leaton
Clark is a family historian, living in the Texas hill country, who has
been researching his family
for over forty years. Wishing to preserve his work, he has
graciously decided to donate his research to Texas - Trails To The
Past.

His Texas ties are primarily in the Panhandle and South Plains area,
but there are family ties across the state as well as across the
country. Among the surnames that will be found in this
collection
are Block, Clark, Lance, Neece, Strickland, and Walser

1.Donate
your
research to the website. This could include Family Group
Sheets,
Biographies, Obituaries, Birth/Marriage/Death dates, Bible
Records,
Family Records (especially those from war), Military Records, and
anything else you would like to contribute. This is a great
way to
help us grow.
We give due credit for all information donated to
the TTTP project.

2.
Join our transcription team. We are currently
working on "Types of Successful Men of Texas" by L. E. Daniell.
This is an 880 page book that contains about 175 biographies.
We also have access to 15 - 20 additional books we hope to
get online.